Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Drilling update - I'm Sweating Now

With the four year replacing all the brick on the entire hospital plan, the drilling is quickly becoming the backdrop to my job. On loud days I use my earplugs. This week, insult was added to injury.

I arrived at work Monday morning and noticed that it was a stuffy 74 degrees in my usually chilly lab office. I cranked down the temp on my thermostat, but a couple of hours later I was sweating and found the temperature had creeped up to almost 78. It didn't help that I was drinking my mid-morning coffee. I called the head transcriptionist and she called maintenance. They hemmed and hawed and talked about needing to do some duct re-working/this might take some time/there is no quick solution. So I propped my door open to get some hallway air.

I got hit up for directions twice. The cacophony of a screaming child from the lab waiting room/ED overflow 10 feet away competed with the brick drilling noises that seem to miraculously find their way into my office from 16 floors above, as if they are right next door. I saw the guys from maintenance puzzling over a large set of hospital blueprints they had pinned against the wall by their hands. A woman stopped in the door of my office while I was dictating a long, complicated colon cancer case. She hovered, holding up a large piece of paper, undeterred by my attempt at focusing on my task. I finally paused and glanced at her to acknowledge her nonverbally. "Do you have any scotch tape?" I mumbled no and shut the door as soon as she walked away. I don't like to lie. But I felt justified, in that instance. My thermostat reading dropped down to 73 with the door open, but at quite a cost.

Two days later and still no action - I borrowed a partner's fan and plan to buy my own this weekend. Luckily I am cold-natured - I can't wait to see what happens when my hothead part-time partner arrives tomorrow to occupy the office he houses next door to mine - we are the only rooms in the lab that are affected by the faulty ducts. They say they are working on it. They say . . .

Hopefully the massive thunderstorm/temperature drop tonight will help. But it's Arkansas, so that fix will be very temporary.